Looking back to Hō‘imi Forward

December 26, 2018

A year-end Exercise in Positive Expectancy

Hō‘imi is another Hawaiian value, one that blends parts of Managing with Aloha’s ‘Imi ola (create your best possible life) and Ka lā hiki ola (hope, promise, and optimism), with generous helpings of Nānā i ke kumu (look to your source, particularly with Sense of Place).

Hō‘imi is a powerhouse in value-verbing, for it literally means to look forward, looking for better and best, and to do something about what you see. There is an element of restlessness with it, and the wanting to move on, shift, and tweak things, yet that discontent of Hō‘imi is positive and eager — for again, it expects better and best to be waiting in the wings.

The looking and ‘to look’ part (imi) is a distinction of Hō‘imi: Visualization and visionary thinking is a big part of it. You look at what is, to see it as clearly as you can, and you look toward better and best possibility — you expect that possibility is where you can see it, even if only in mind’s eye. At least for now.

We call it the value of positive expectancy, because the confidence in Hō‘imi is convicted by the experience of doing and getting things done. Remember, values reside in people, and in the elements of our human nature.

Just imagine the powerful, proactive punch in the value pairing of Hō‘imi and Ho‘ohana!

Look Back with appreciation, See Forward more clearly.

We’re within the final stretch of 2018, and it’s a good time for this exercise using our 19 Values of Aloha.

For my business, I like to do this as a team journaling practice during Thanksgiving week because the value of Mahalo is so pervasive: We are more appreciative, we speak to our thankfulness much more readily, and gratitude influences our reflections. We “live in thankfulness for the richness that makes life so precious at work and at home, and we are able to sense our gifts elementally.”

Thus, at Say Leadership Coaching, we do this individually first, and then we compare notes as a team in one of our Thanksgiving week huddles.

Christmastide week (between Christmas and New Years Day) is when I will turn to this exercise on a personal basis.

I have structured the rest of this post in workbook page form for those of you who prefer digital ease: Copy-and-paste the section below, and then add more writing space to it before you print. The exercise is simple, but I do encourage you to take your time with it. Give some thought to the “trigger phrase” after each value’s name which I have taken from our “language of we” used here on this site. Then, write down 2 impressions for each value — express your current mana‘o.

Look Back (value-verbing done): How did you turn this value into a verb in 2018? How might it have expressed itself in a life of its own, taking you for the ride? What has that meant to you as a keeper, and lesson-learned? If it was barely a blip on your radar, just skip it and move on to the others, and move on to the next part.

See Forward (value-mapping desired): How do you want to use this value in 2019? Is there something specific you intend to do? Why? Do you have any partnership with someone else in mind, or a tangible goal it connects to?

After you’ve completed your worksheet, write a paragraph which sums up your impressions. Capture whatever it is you’re thinking. Now put it aside to sleep on it.

Be an arrow, shot with Hō‘imi attitude

When you find pockets of quiet time in the holiday days to come, play with your worksheet a bit more, and decide what you’ll do with what you’ve learned, and what you now perceive as your current truths. These, after all, will be a draft of your own intentions.

Postscript:

When Managing with Aloha was written 14 years ago, I had identified 48 different Hawaiian values in my studies with kūpuna. Hō‘imi was not included in the 19 Values of Aloha of my book because I chose to focus on Hawai‘i’s ‘rootstock values’ as a universal collection. Hō‘imi is, however, one of the Core 5 Values of my company, Say Leadership Coaching.

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